Authors: Richard Carman
Mind Bomb
’s was a perfect line-up, completing the traditional four-piece and co-incidentally bringing together the band that might have become Heat. Johnny was to describe this incarnation
of The The “as much of a band as any band I’ve ever been in”, and the entire process of putting the album together was both relaxing and intense. The band itself was a perfectly formed group, under Johnson’s directing eye. Nor were the foursome alone in the recording process; some seventeen performers appeared on the album in addition to a choir and the Astarti string section. Included in the cast were bass supremo Danny Thompson and Sinead O’Connor, who sang beautifully on ‘Kingdom of Rain’.
‘Good Morning Beautiful’ was one of the band’s favourite pieces, based upon field recordings of Islamic voices in Indonesia brought to the project by Johnson’s girlfriend. With a glance towards David Bowie’s
Station To Station
in its opening, the piece uses samples in quite a different way to Byrne and Eno’s use of similar sounds on
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
. Where they used samples as the central tenet of the song, The The use them as colourings, illustrations to the musical tracks, and the effect is very pleasing. Directing the piece to the band, Johnson instructed Johnny to make his contribution sound “like Jesus meeting the Devil.” “I was thinking… ‘Right – that’s a new one!’” said Johnny afterwards.
‘Armageddon Days’ had one of the strongest lyrics on the album, a brave piece augmented by a full choir, inspired by the current worsening issues between the Islamic world and the West. “People have forgotten how serious that whole situation was,” Johnson was to comment later in reference to the Salman Rushdie affair that also went off over the coming months. “‘Armageddon’ started to pick up radio play, and at least one station got a phone call from someone… basically, ‘don’t play this, or else.’” Had it been released as a single, the opening few bars would have been familiar to anyone who remembered
Sweet, the glam rock band whose ‘Ballroom Blitz’ was a huge hit in the early Seventies. It was clear however, that the wrath of Matt was levelled not at God but at organised religion
per se
– divinity is fine, but how we use it for our own means is the most divisive flaw in mankind’s make-up. Track three, ‘The Violence Of Truth’, featured Mark Feltham on harmonica (though the harmonica on ‘Beyond Love’
was
Johnny), a faux-glam riff from Johnny electrifying the track that demonstrated Marr’s continuous search for a feel or vibe. “The only way I could get that sound,” says Johnny, “was to pick the most horrible guitar I had, tape up the top four strings and just whack the bottom ones. It turned out almost like glam sax!”
‘Kingdom Of Rain’ contains the images of blood and rain that appear throughout the album, and Sinead’s duet with Johnson as passionate as one would expect. Although O’Connor had had hits already, it was to be another nine months before she moved the whole world with own version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.
‘The Beat(en) Generation’ was named after a painting by Johnson’s brother Andy, a warning shot fired across the bows of a generation of youngsters so hip that they had lost the connection with the real issues of their lives. Matt described it as a message for people who were living “all icing and no cake.” The song has an engaging immediacy, reflecting the fact that Johnson wrote it from start to finish in two hours. The jaunty, country feel of Johnny’s 12-string Stratocaster and Mark Feltham’s irresistible harmonica drew a lot of listeners to the album, and was Johnson’s first, deliberate attempt to do just that – to bring an audience into an album via a hit single. “I realised that I had been making life
difficult for myself,” Matt told
Alternative Press
. “Commercially, I’d always made the wrong moves for all the right reasons… In retrospect I couldn’t have done it any other way.” If the newly-found singles audience was expecting an album filled with rockabilly Marr, then they had not listened closely to the lyric – deeper waters awaited the listener to
Mind Bomb
in the politically-charged world order.
‘August & September’ was lifted wholesale from Johnson’s personal diary, written on an island in the Mediterranean, a passionate love song of break-up and despair. ‘Gravitate To Me’, another single off the album, was the penultimate track, with more bluesy harmonica, this time set above Johnny’s Chic-style guitar. ‘‘Beyond Love’ was Johnson’s personal favourite from the album. “It has some of the strongest lyrics I’ve written,” Matt was to tell Martin Roach, also in
The Right To Imagination And Madness
, and the images of drops of blood and semen struck a haunting chord with many listeners too.
In The The, Johnny found a new soul-mate. While he was not necessarily looking for replacements for Morrissey, Rourke and Joyce, he clearly needed some grounded process to work on, and in Johnson he found not only a friend but a polished and articulate song-writer, who was also a guitar player and whose work suited his own playing, like jigsaw pieces fitting together. At the end of the sessions, Johnny – ever generous with his guitars – presented his sunburst 12-string Strat to Matt as a present.
Johnson was the only player who Johnny could consider working with at the time, noting cryptically that “I don’t fit well with other guitarists.”
Mind Bomb
was work that he felt he could “embellish and feel very comfortable with,” and when the album
was finally mixed at Air Studios off Oxford Street, there was a palpable feeling that The The had produced something unique and brave, a charged album that addressed some heavy and unpopular issues. Consequently the critical response was mixed. As it has been often for Billy Bragg, commentators who don’t like his overtly political stance choose to ignore the searing and heart-wrenching love songs that he has produced, and so with
Mind Bomb
– reviewers took against its political and religious content and failed to record some of the warmer songs on an album that Johnny was very proud of. Both Marr and Johnson felt that there was a critical backlash because of who they were, not because of the content of the album. “A lot of people had it in for [Johnny],” Matt told Heather Bell, “and [for] me – for getting a bit cocky. So we just battened down the hatches.”
In fact,
Mind Bomb
has aged particularly well, and remains a remarkably warm, melodic, passionate and eloquent piece of work. Musically it is varied, beautifully arranged and played with a precision and care only evident in works that are labours of love. Lyrically it is articulate and fervent, and delivered with evident passion. One reviewer likened it to TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’. Johnson himself looked back on the album with mixed feelings. “I was obviously taking myself too seriously, and probably got what was coming to me,” he says. “But in my defence I was trying to bring something new to the songs with the angle I took on religion.” The album was, Matt admitted, ahead of its time. “If it had been Ice T doing that in 1991 everyone would have considered it a revelation,” he said, concluding that – probably encapsulating the response to both him and Johnny – “Britain loves its people to be as humble as possible!”
1
989 saw The Stone Roses finally hit the big time, with their eponymous debut album.
The Stone Roses
was quickly established as an indie two-fingered classic, a new band sending post cards from Manchester with love. By the end of the year, the Roses were filling London’s Alexandra Palace with 7,500 punters. After The Smiths and before Oasis, The Stone Roses were the guitar’s saving grace and the precursors of the next ten years of real dance music in the UK. At the same time, New Order presented Technique. One of Morrissey’s greatest solo singles, ‘The Last Of The Famous International Playboys’ continued his interest in cultural icons of the Sixties as his gaze turned to the Kray Twins and the London underworld. ‘The Last Of The Famous International Playboys’ so impressed Johnny (and the record-buying public, who took it to within one place of the top five)
that, according to Johnny Rogan in
The Severed Alliance
, he sent Morrissey a congratulatory postcard.
Neil Young, a long-time hero for Johnny, released his hugely influential ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’, beating the hell out of the guitar that had influenced Johnny so much in his early years. In March the first single from
Mind Bomb
was released. While ‘The Beat(en) Generation’ was a huge success, it was not the first choice of single, which initially was slated as ‘Armageddon Days’. As mentioned, just days before the release however, the
Satanic Verses
affair kicked off, the political, religious, ideological and moral fracas inspired by the novel by Salman Rushdie, and the release was canned. While Rushdie was under sentence of fatwa, he was given a round-the-clock guard by security forces. Rumours abounded as to where Rushdie had sought refuge, and the story was a major feature in international news. Astonishingly, Johnny later claimed that Rushdie had been living in the apartment above him in London!
“I’d go and get the mail,” Marr remembered in conversation with Matt Johnson later, “and I’d see all these letters for ‘S Rushdie’… and I’d think ‘Shit! – he’s got to have a few words with his friends.’” While the pair apparently never met, when Oasis’ Noel Gallagher was living in the same flat some time later, the post had still not been redirected. He was still receiving mail for a Mr S Rushdie.
It was a period of convoluted family ties for Johnny. In April, Chrissie Hynde’s The Pretenders released ‘Windows On The World’, at the same time as Morrissey released his own single ‘Interesting Drug’. One of the singer’s finest solo-single moments, this song featured Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals, and at the same time Kirsty was promoting her own album
Kite
, she had
also covered the Smiths song ‘You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby’ as the B-side of her 12-inch version of the biting chart hit ‘Free World’, on which, of course, Johnny featured. Was there a conflict of interests for Kirsty, as she guested on one Smith’s record, had another Smith appear on her own album, and covered a song written by the pair of them at the same time?
According to Kirsty there was no issue. She candidly explained to
Melody Maker
that both Morrissey and Johnny had contacted her independently and that both records were a ‘natural progression’ from her having worked previously with The Smiths on ‘Ask’. On the subject of Morrissey and Marr possibly never working together again, Kirsty again pointed out that “I don’t think it’s really any of my business… but I think it would be a shame if they never wrote together again because the standard of their songs was so brilliant.”
After
Mind Bomb
was released in May, Johnson decided to tour the album worldwide. In July ‘Gravitate To Me’ was released as a single. Johnny joined the tour, and the hundred shows around the globe were a resounding success, bringing in audiences beyond all expectations from twenty-two countries between the USA and Australia. For Johnson it was an affirmation that putting the band together had been the right decision for his own work at the time. For Johnny it was his favourite – and most extensive – touring experience to date. The tour concluded with three superb nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which was filmed for video release as
The The Versus The World
. After the final date at Dublin’s The Point in mid-July, Johnny returned to Manchester.
The The provided Johnny with a vehicle that carried him over a period of several years. In 1989 he tentatively began another such project, however, that would arguably become his most successful
and would certainly rival The Smiths in terms of commercial, chart and – almost – critical success. Electronic was glibly labelled a ‘supergroup’ in some corners of the media: a former Smith, a member of New Order, and, though not a permanent member, a Pet Shop Boy, the threesome making a Cream for the Nineties. The blend was irresistible, though its genesis was low key. Initially Johnny and Bernard intended the project to, at best, produce “a white label twelve-inch and maybe an album,” but – with typical understatement – Johnny admits that “things turned out okay.”
The pair had met back when Sumner was producing Quando Quango, but they were also introduced by DJ Andrew Berry. “We knew each other,” said Sumner, “but we didn’t know each other that well.” It was the former Hacienda hairdresser who suggested to Bernard that he get in touch with Johnny, and – tired of the stresses and strains of working in his own rehearsal studio alone – Sumner did contact him and ask Johnny if he fancied working together. “We started working weekends,” remembered Johnny. “Really, really long writing sessions.” As mentioned, these sessions ran concurrently with recording with The The, often on the same day.
For Bernard, Electronic was an opportunity to work outside of the strictures placed upon him by New Order. “I really needed a bit more freedom than I was getting,” he recalls. “I felt that too many things I wanted to do were treading on people’s feet. If I wanted to do a track, for instance, [that was] just me and a synthesizer, or me and an acoustic guitar, I couldn’t do it in New Order because everybody’s got to play their bit.” While Bernard was looking for personal space, Johnny was looking also to find room to work for himself, away from collaborations. “It’s an opportunity for me
to work on other instruments,” Marr was to say, “and pursue the ideas that I’ve only been able to explore in demos for other people really… and explore them more fully.”
Electronic was a slow starter. “We were formed very much as an anti-group,” said Johnny. Given their histories, there was a relief to simply be able to go away and make music for themselves. “[It] was almost like a refuge for the two of us to be still able to make music.” It took the pair a long time to get to know one another’s working methods and to gel personally. “Johnny had to get his head around the way I worked,” said Bernard, “and I had to get my head around the way he worked, because Johnny is a very accomplished musician.” Neither he nor New Order as a band had the level of sophistication that he found in Johnny’s work. “[We] don’t really know what we’re doing – but we end up doing it!” said Bernard, but admitted that working with Johnny had made him a better musician himself.
If Electronic at times seemed overly serious, the humour within the band was evident from many of the interviews that Johnny or Bernard gave. In one of the funniest interviews on record, for a Canadian radio station, Johnny was asked who out of Chrissie Hynde, Matt Johnson, Beck or Morrissey, was the biggest diva. After a moment’s pause he chose someone else instead. “Bernard Sumner,” said Johnny with enthusiasm. “He’s terrible. You’re not allowed to make eye contact. The wrong kind of flowers in the dressing room send him into an all-day tizz. [He’s always] talking about how he wrote ‘Blue Monday’ incessantly, when no-one really cares… or likes it!” Johnny’s tongue was, of course, firmly in his cheek, but the immediate leap to cite Bernard as a diva was very entertaining. It also offered him the chance to dodge
answering the original question with utmost professionalism! “I was a [young] guy,” Johnny would say later, “living in a city that was just exploding with a new culture. I’d been waiting for my city to do that since punk, because I was too young for punk.” The excitement around Manchester was tangible. “Suddenly the place was experiencing new music, new technology, new clubs, new drugs.” As always for Johnny, the moment was the key thing – there was no career plan, it was simply this music at this moment in this town.
Electronic fused Bernard Sumner and Johnny’s pop sensibilities and song-writing skills, Marr’s structural proficiency with Sumner’s programming ability, and – with Neil Tennant as part of the team – the gorgeous, rich voice of the Pet Shop Boys. Marr was keen to work with the Pet Shop Boys, and when Neil expressed interest in being involved with Electronic, Johnny jumped at the chance. As well as wanting to work with him, Johnny was also aware that to be involved with such an out-and-out pop act would shake up some of the Smiths community too. The Pet Shop Boy connection also brought a great sense of fun to the project too. The four guys got to know one another when Bernard and Johnny invited Tennant and Lowe to Manchester. “We got them down to The Hacienda within about five minutes of them getting there,” remembered Bernard, “and they experienced the delights of the Manchester scene.”
Johnny has analysed his work and working practices over the years and has come to the conclusion that each ‘generation’ of his career is a natural progression from the last. “The sort of person I was in The Smiths needed to write the songs that [he] did for
that
group,” Marr observes… “I wanted to find my feet as a writer.”
The The expanded his musical vocabulary and consciousness further. By the time of Electronic, the work that Marr and Sumner produced was very much a representation of a particular scene and lifestyle that the pair shared. But it wasn’t cosy. Working in Manchester, with The Hacienda still a priority for Sumner, put all kinds of things at risk. “That whole scene was a lot more complex than [just] a lot of people wearing flares,” remembers Marr. “There was a lot of violence around, and guns. People were swallowing ecstasy and all that, but there were gangsters around, and violence.” The scene came up against the media-heavy local Chief of Police, James Anderton, determined to stamp down on the increasing violence engulfing the southern suburbs of Manchester in particular. It was a heady, dangerous time – the press nicknamed the city ‘Gunchester’.
The intensity of the circumstances made for a remarkable working relationship between Johnny and Bernard, the ‘extremes’ of the situation particularly good for the creative process. While The Smiths and Joy Division/New Order walked different paths throughout the Eighties, each had clearly always kept an eye on what was happening along the other track. In a sense, the duo were Manchester ‘united’, but there was one problem for the Sky Blue Marr however – working with Bernard also meant working with a Man U fan.
Near-neighbours, Johnny was deeply passionate about the work they began to do in 1989, as he has been with every project with which he has been involved. It was the first time Johnny had got involved with MIDI guitar playing, giving a synthetic feel to much of the music. Bernard was the perfect partner in this for Johnny, able – as Marr put it – to set up great sounds on a vast
bank of keyboards whilst almost having the volume in the studio turned off.
As Johnny had with Morrissey and Matt Johnson, with Sumner and himself at the centre of the project they were able to bring a thousand different influences to bear while trawling through a shared love of similar kinds of music, from The Kinks to Kraftwerk. While The Smiths had given Johnny the experience of co-writing with a remarkable lyricist and The The had given him extra experience of working on material largely completed in the writing process by someone else, Electronic was a revelation. “For the first time,” Johnny enthused, “I am totally writing with another musician.” Sometimes Johnny would write all the music. Sometimes the roles were reversed and Sumner would do the same – it was a genuinely shared experience, as at other times they would literally write together. ‘Getting Away With It’, the timeless first fruit of the partnership, was a perfect example. “He wrote the verse,” said Marr, “and I wrote the chorus… that is when the real sparks fly!” Johnny’s initial intent with the song had been to write the song as if it were “Sister Sledge, with the Pet Shop Boys as a backing band,” and he felt that the finished piece was a perfect pop song. To prove him right, the single went into the US top forty and sold over 350,000 copies, while in the UK it made it to number eleven in the chart.
Electronic reached a new audience for both partners. While The The and New Order were commercial and critical successes, Electronic proved that serial collaborators Sumner and Marr had found their own voices within the format of the duo. The new venture was a breath of fresh air, although the two often seemed to come to the task from different directions. “Bernard thinks the
whole ‘born with a guitar in your mouth’ story very corny,” says Johnny. While easy bucks had never been Johnny’s priority in the past – it has always been
the work
rather than the income that motivates him – Marr has always loved commercial pop, whether it be glam stomps, cool grooves or out-and-out disco. And while income was not the driving force behind Electronic either, what was clear from day one was that both Sumner and Marr had developed a new kind of pop sensibility. Electronic – especially with their link to the Pet Shop Boys – just happened to be a very saleable concept. At the same time, lest the critics accuse them of trying to make a fast buck while their other bands were no longer clawing the top reaches of the singles charts, Johnny was keen to emphasise that his involvement with The The was still ongoing, and so was Bernard’s with New Order. This was by no means an idle hobby for a couple of rich musicians.
“We’re intensely ambitious,” Johnny told Stuart Maconie for
Select
, pointing out that while the project did not compete with their daytime jobs in other bands, it gave them both an outlet for other creative urges. Electronic had an air of the idealistic, a sense of refinement and of polish. Working with new machinery and escaping the ‘Johnny Marr sound’, Marr was also able to indulge his life-long passion for up-tempo dance music and electronica. “If it’s a good song,” Johnny told one interviewer. “I’ll play alongside machines all day.”